From Publishers Weekly
While Wong (1905-1961) has been called "the premier Asian-American actress," controversies surrounding her career have left her life and work largely unexamined. In this groundbreaking biography, Colgate University history professor Hodges reveals this captivating woman, offering readers a sense of the struggle her career represented. Although Wong was a third-generation Californian, she needed permits to re-enter the U.S. after her foreign tours. She could work in the movies, but only in Asian roles, replete with negative stereotypes. Even then, she was barred from roles involving marriage with non-Asians-even with white actors playing Asians. Off-screen romance wasn't much easier; a Chinese husband wouldn't accept her career, but marriage to a non-Asian violated anti-miscegenation laws. Still, Wong persevered, improving what roles she could get by supplying authentic costumes, hairstyles and gestures. When even bad roles disappeared, she turned to the stage or took work in European film productions. Wong's Chinese war relief work and post-WWII TV appearances provided some satisfaction in her last years. Yet her career and life were cut short by a world that simply wasn't ready for an Asian-American star. Hodges summarizes the plots of all of Wong's films, covers the chronology of her career and has done extensive research into Chinese sources. He's particularly adept at viewing Wong through the lens of Chinese culture, interpreting the meaning of her attire or hand movements. He also covers the Chinese and Chinese-American press's reaction to Wong, adding an important dimension to understanding her limbo between two worlds, unacceptable to racist Hollywood and to the conservative Chinese establishment. Illus. not seen by PW.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Hodges first encountered "the premier Asian American actress," who appeared in more than 50 movies during a career spanning some 40 years, in 1999 in a framed photo in a London bookstore. Internationally popular, Wong (1905-61) became the film personification of Chinese womanhood, angering her own family and Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist movement, who considered her callously exploited by Hollywood because her career coincided with the Chinese Exclusion Act and increased discrimination against Chinese Americans. Indeed, film codes forbade kissing between races, and the concept of "Orientalism" was forged to excuse such prejudice. Wong portrayed characters whose inevitable fate was lovelessness or death. Hodges not only rediscovers her films but also examines her life as a third-generation American in racist L.A. Rebelling against tradition, she became a Chinese flapper, but through her film work, she later found identity in her roots and sought to improve Americans' image of China and became a movie legend, gay camp favorite, and figure of continuing controversy. A well-illustrated, accessible, scholarly addition to film and women's studies. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"In this ground breaking biography, Colgate University history professor Hodges reveals this captivating woman, offering readers a sense of the struggle her career represented."--Publishers Weekly



Review
"In this ground breaking biography, Colgate University history professor Hodges reveals this captivating woman, offering readers a sense of the struggle her career represented."--Publishers Weekly



Review
"In this ground breaking biography, Colgate University history professor Hodges reveals this captivating woman, offering readers a sense of the struggle her career represented."--Publishers Weekly



Book Description
Anna May Wong was one of Hollywood's most well-known Chinese American actresses. Between 1919 and 1960, she starred in over fifty movies, sharing billing with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Marlene Dietrich and Werner Oland. Her life, though, is the prototypical story of an immigrant's difficult path through the prejudices of American culture. Born in Los Angeles in 1905, she was the second daughter of six children born to a laundryman and his wife. Her life there fuelled her fascination with Hollywood and, in 1919 she secured a small part in her first film, The Red Lantern. Her most famous film roles were in Thief of Baghdad, Old San Francisco and Shanghai Express. Discrimination against Asians, though, was commonplace and when it came time to make a film version of Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, she was passed over for the role that was ultimately given to the Luise Rainer. In a narrative that recalls both the pathos of life in Los Angeles's Chinese neighborhoods and the glamour of Hollywood's pleasure palaces, Graham Hodges recounts the life of a Hollywood legend.



About the Author
Graham Russell Hodges is Professor of History at Colgate University.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Anna May Wong is, undoubtedly, the most luminous Chinese American actress ever to grace the silver screen. Between 1919 and 1960 she starred in over fifty films and shared equal billing with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Marlene Dietrich, and Warner Oland. But her life, though glamorous, is almost the prototypical story of an immigrant's difficult path through America. Born in Los Angeles in 1905, she was the second daughter of eight children born to a laundryman and his wife. Growing up in Los Angeles fuelled her fascination with Hollywood, and in 1919 she secured a small part in her first film, The Red Lantern with Alla Nazimova. Her most famous film roles were in Toll of the Sea, Piccadilly, The Thief of Bagdad, Daughter of the Dragon, and most importantly, Shanghai Express, opposite Dietrich. Anna May Wong was an international celebrity whose friendships with intellectuals and artists included the famed Chinese actress Butterfly Wu, Walter Benjamin, Carl Van Vechten, Paul Robeson, Edward Steichen, and Mei Lan Fan. Even though Anna May Wong made many landmark films, discrimination against Asians in Hollywood insured that she was passed over for the lead role in the film version of Pearl Buck's The Good Earth. Apparently Wong was "too Asian" for the role. The British Film Institute recently released a newly restored version of Wong's classic film Piccadilly and the world will, once again, thrill to the artistry of this great actress. Graham Hodges' biography of Anna May Wong rediscovers one of Hollywood's most legendary actresses and is a must for film lovers.

SYNOPSIS

With cooperation from Wong's American but not Chinese relatives, Hodges (history, Colgate U.) offers a biography (1905-61) relating her rise to stardom, battles with discrimination as a Chinese-American actress, identity issues, contrasting reception from Caucasians and Chinese, and legacy. Film clips feature The Toll of the Sea (1922) and The Thief of Bagdad (1924), included in the filmography. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly